Observations from festive fixtures

Mistertonblue · January 1, 2015

Distin looks finished.

Alcaraz is even slower than thought.

Barry is probably our worst player at the moment.

Besic must start ahead of Barry.

Kone is better than Lukaku at holding the ball up and actually controlling the ball.

Naismith is no Pirlo.

Baines could be quite good in midfield and offers more than Barry at present.

Mirallas looks a little disinterested.

Barkley is trying and needs to play in the middle.

Coleman seems to be returning to form.

L4Everton · January 1, 2015

Observations.

Lack of bottle?
Besic dives in gets booked and is then rendered useless.
Zero defensive solidarity - Barry is scuttling back covering the CB line and playing everyone onside.
Mirallas is wondering what it's like playing somewhere warm
Kone was allegedly taking days to recover from a game, now he's played 2 games in 3 days. Odd.
The side, each to a man wait for the referee to make a call - we play it about and the oppo stick a challenge in, our eleven look to the ref - when the ref makes a stand gives the FK and at least a warning we play on as a side. When the ref does nothing almost every players head drops. It is at this exact moment that the white flag goes up the opposition then steam roller us. Pathetic.
Martinez' after game interviews are starting to look like a parody.
I don't see a way out of this.

sageyefc · January 1, 2015

Dare i say i look forward to Osman returning, at least he shows some bottle on the pitch and a bit of leadership, not afraid to get stuck into players or ref.

To many shithouses on the pitch at the minute shirking responsibility

Jags..class · January 1, 2015

Fitness levels is bad

Goat · January 1, 2015

Players
Perform - Better - When - Selected
In - Proper
Positions - On - The
Pitch

Joey66 · January 1, 2015

Mistertonblue said:
Distin looks finished.

Alcaraz is even slower than thought.

Barry is probably our worst player at the moment.

Besic must start ahead of Barry.

Kone is better than Lukaku at holding the ball up and actually controlling the ball.

Naismith is no Pirlo.

Baines could be quite good in midfield and offers more than Barry at present.

Mirallas looks a little disinterested.

Barkley is trying and needs to play in the middle.

Coleman seems to be returning to form.

iN BOLD NOT ON TODAY'S SHOWING - he was pathetic al round woeful tbh!

PhilM · January 1, 2015

Using my years of experience, I will summarise my observations from the entire fixture list over the festive period.

We aren't very good... We are getting worse... We will get even worse unless something is done... Martinez wont do something.

Boss_Blue · January 1, 2015

Observations:

We are sht

Jayhow15 · January 1, 2015

Boss_Blue said:
Observations:

We are sht

This !

cjuk87 · January 2, 2015

MoutsGoat said:
Players
Perform - Better - When - Selected
In - Proper
Positions - On - The
Pitch

Howard, Distin, Jags, Baines, Barry, McGeady must all play a different position i've never known about then. Because in the position they're in, they're dreadful

Ring master · January 2, 2015

Observations from xmas games,are that you could just use the whole season,as pretty much the same problem,Just no anything from us really,

markDee · January 2, 2015

We desperately need Delefaou (or similar type player) back on the wing who actually beats his man, runs to the by line and gets the ball over. McGeady wants to do this but is nowhere near consistent enough or has enough quality to do it.

All of our flair players: Barkley, Mirallas, Pienaar, McGeady are too low on confidence to try something new and we are painfully slow and predictable.

Go out and buy Delefaou or a young pacy winger to help us out and relieve pressure on the defence or were going down

mrb85 · January 2, 2015

The main observations from the 3 match festive (?!) period are three-fold: - one, we are the worst team in the Division; two, maybe QPR aside, we have the least fight and spirit; and finally, Martinez has not a clue on how to put things right (the old chestnut in his last interview that we need to win one and then we'll improve is the oldest and the most blatant confirmation from a manager that he has no idea what to do next).

Seeing the various performances from the likes of Leicester and Burnley only serve to emphasise these points. They have been playing with belief, pace and verve, even in defeat.

To even start to address the problems, the manager has to stiffen the middle of the park, and the most effective way of doing so is going to have to be by playing all 3 of Barry, McCarthy and Besic in purely guardianship roles -- put another way, stopping the marauding opposition from getting at our two CBs so easily. In front of them we can play more adventurous players like Mirallas and Barkley and still have a solid balance to the side.